How a little bird told me to change my perspective
Day after day, year after year, I have been sitting at my computer, lost in a world of google searches, websites, email checking and other automatic behaviors. Caught in the minutia of the daily routine. Doing the same thing every day. As if by rote, life passing by.
After the pandemic hit, things changed. Like, working from home. Spending weekdays with my husband. And of course, exercising at home. This was all different.
Then, the bird came.
I was working out on my total gym in a little used bedroom. It is normally locked to keep the cats out, in pristine condition, reserved for the once-every-two-year visit from my brother. But now, the room’s use was changed. We had moved the work-out machine into it, along with some old dumbbells we had in the garage. That morning, I opened the blinds so I could see out the window and started my cable pulls, when my eye caught a blue spark flitting on the ground. No, could it be? My husband had said that he thought he saw the elusive bird a few days prior, but I had doubted him. After all, I was the true birder in the family, even though he had caught on well after being married to me.
But, there it was. An Indigo Bunting. As a birder would know, joy leapt, and I ran for the binoculars. The bird was hopping around on the ground underneath our feeder. It was a place we rarely saw, because we have a low brick wall blocking that perspective from our normal bird-watching spot in the sunroom. It had been seven years since I last saw an Indigo Bunting (I keep a journal). They are dazzling birds. They are an Atlantic Ocean blue. They are also hunted and caught in Central America for their beauty.
For the next week, I pulled chairs into a new location in front of the window (one for me, and two for my cats, plus my husband when he gets home). After work, I wait for the Indigo Bunting to come back. I saw it one more time.
This little story made me think. Maybe, if we keep doing the same thing we’ve always done, we will never see what else there is, or what else can be. If I hadn’t been working out at home, looking out a different window, I would have never seen that bird. With the same perspective, we always see the same thing, but maybe there is something more.
Wendy Rulnick
Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.
It’s Wendy… It’s Sold!
850-259-0422 | [email protected]
Wendy Rulnick, Broker, sells short sale, pre-foreclosure, REO and traditional real estate in Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, Miramar Beach, Crestview, Sandestin, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Florida.
